Well...

I wish today was Thursday, academic day done and over, looking forward to Friday. But no, the academy decides to operate on Thursday's schedule on a Tuesday. BIG MISTAKE because I now have swimming 2x this week.

So I go there this morning, I already knew what they were going to tell me, "You need to go to sub squad to work on your swimming." I know what the problem, just slow to correct it. Give me time, I guess they say, "Hell we've already given you 2 years to work on your swimming." And I say, Yes indeed you have, but don't expect superior performance over night. Just think of me as a nice juicy piece of meat, in preparation for the oven. First you have to marinate it, let it sit for a while, then your cook on a low heat for a matter of hours, then when it just right it's taken out of the oven and serve up all nice and worth the waiting. That's how this swimming thing is moving for me. Slow, but when I'm done, it's going to be perfected and undisputed.

So now I face Character Development Seminar, just after I've such a wonderful day of academics. A round table discussion on how to be an effective leader and all the other things that I a person of good character and leadership consist of. Well let me tell you one thing. Not everyone gets a chance a leadership in life. Well, maybe we do in some form or fashion. But not every leader is going to be recognized, but that's what some leaders crave, recognition. You see me, I am a real leader, what a true leader should be. I don't seek the fame and glory and my name engraved upon some plague, but to know that I have the knowledge to call the rights shots, at the right time, and of course the right place, maybe qualifies me to be a leader.

Or maybe not, because actually when I think about it, I don't use good self judgment. I think I am facing my first "fry" here at the academy. I signed up for the weekend that the Supt. gave all ELIGIBLE upperclass for the Navy vs. Duke victory. A victory for them, a loss for me. Well lets just say, that I failed to realize that I am unsat from last semester, thus disqualifying me, what a good leader would have known, right. Well me and a few other shipmates are sure to be punished because we failed to realize that we were counted out of that weekend. A CASE OF DISCRIMINATION. Well, I would push the envelope, being that I am black and they want a brother to be locked down on a Saturday night in Annapolis, MD, not enjoying the liberties and freedoms that my forefathers fought so hard for me to attain. Is liberty a right not a privilege? Is freedom really free to all. But apparently night. You must earn it still in America, just when I thought I was no longer a 2nd citizen but a 2nd class midshipmen. Ponder that! But I won't take any legal action or call my good friend Johnny Cochran or phone Jesse Jackson. I will just handle this as we are taught in the military, involving all the people who you don't want in your business.

GOD BLESS US ALL.